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The Nerd Lunch and Cult Film Club crews invade Atlanta

Posted in fast food, Kentucky Fried Chicken, roadtrip with tags Coca Cola, Cult Film Club, fast food, Nerd Lunch Podcast, Nerdy Roadtrip, New Coke, roadtrip, soda on March 12, 2014 by Paxton

This past weekend the members of the Nerd Lunch Podcast and the Cult Film Club podcast descended on Atlanta for a meetup. This was the first time several of us had seen each other in real life. Here are some photos commemorating this historic nerdy and cultish event.

The first place we all went together was, of course, The World of Coke.

Here I am at the entrance to the World of Coke getting photobombed by CT.

The entire Nerd Lunch podcast crew. Together again for the first time. And on a Coke sofa.

The entire Cult Film Club crew together in the gift shop at The World of Coke.

Surprisingly, the museum actually had a small display dedicated to New Coke, of which you know I’m obsessed.

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I visited Barnes & Noble for Star Wars Reads Day with my son

Posted in books, movies, Star Wars with tags books, bookstores, movies, roadtrip, Star Wars, Star Wars Roadtrip on December 12, 2013 by Paxton

My 3 year old has been slowly getting into the concept of Star Wars. He hasn’t seen any of the movies, he just knows some of the characters because he has several books I read to him at night featuring the more popular ones. Not surprisingly, he gravitates to the more visually interesting ones; Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Chewbacca, Boba Fett, Yoda, etc. And, of course, he loves lightsabers.

So, back in early October, when I saw that our local Barnes & Noble store celebrated Star Wars Reads Day with costumed characters, book readalongs and lots of fun activities, I knew I had to take PJ. He already loves Barnes & Noble, but to go there and see Darth Vader? Yeah, this had to happen.

We got there around 11:30am and there were several costumed characters. First PJ and I got a pic with one of my favorite types of stormtroopers, the Biker Scout.

PJ was a little shy at first seeing these giant, life size representations of the characters in his book, but he was sort of giggling with happiness as well.

Next we saw a Sandtrooper.

And then finally, the man himself. Darth Vader.

PJ was in Heaven at this point. He loved Vader. Later on he would walk up to Vader and the other stormtroopers and tell them that “his name is PJ”. So cute.

There was only one character PJ was actively afraid of. That was the Jawa. I don’t think he’d ever even seen a Jawa before, so it scared him. Consequently, he wouldn’t get a picture with it. However, afterwards, that’s the one he asked the most questions about. He wanted to know more about the Jawa.

Whenever we’ve gone back to Barnes & Noble after this, he asks if Darth Vader and the Jawa are going to be there. He also has been showing lots of interest in my Star Wars figures. I have a bunch of loose ones on display upstairs as well as a bunch stored away in plastic divider boxes. I’ve given him about 4 figures to play with; a stormtrooper, Darth Vader, Darth Maul and The Emperor. He also wants a Boba Fett really bad, but I don’t actually have one at the house except for a vintage one that is on display. I’ll have to dig into my stored boxes to find one.

I can’t wait until he can actually see these movies. I’ll probably show them to him sometime in 2015 right before the new Disney Star Wars movie is released. He’ll be five. I think that’ll be PERFECT.

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Today is the 50th Anniversary of JFK’s assassination

Posted in nostalgia, pop culture, roadtrip with tags anniversary, Nerdy Roadtrip, nostalgia, pop culture, roadtrip on November 22, 2013 by Paxton

50 years ago today, JFK was killed in Dallas. It’s up to you to interpret how or why he was killed. There are plenty of theories to choose from. Personally, I think here is more to the “Lee Harvey Oswald story” that we don’t know. I don’t think Oswald planned it on his own, though he may have actually done the deed on his own. I don’t know, a the time this occurred, I wasn’t going to be born for another 11 years. Anyway, I’m sort of fascinated by Kennedy’s assassination and the culture storm that has sort of erupted around it. I even visited the site of the assassination.

Via Newsbusters.org

I graduated college in Summer 1997 and was sent to Dallas, TX for 7 weeks of training for my new job in IT consulting. While there, I decided to take advantage and visit Dealy Plaza and the Texas School Book Depository building.

A few friends of mine and I drove there and when we arrived we decided to drive the main street in front of Dealy where Kennedy was killed. Below is a picture out of the car window at the infamous fence on the grassy knoll (on the left) next to Dealy Plaza (white structure on the right). Our car is approximately where Kennedy’s limousine was when the shots were fired. Maybe even a little bit past.

After getting out of the car and walking towards Dealy Plaza, I stood where Abraham Zapruder stood and snapped a picture of the road Kennedy traveled and the Texas School Book Depository building looming in the back (brick building far left). In Zapruder’s footage there was a street sign on the road that blocked the view back in the early 60s. The street lamp in the very middle of the picture is the same one that is in the above picture.

I’m not going to lie, standing in Dealy Plaza and on the grassy knoll looking back at the School Book Depository building was surreal and a bit eerie. Lots of living history. So much happened. It just feels ominous standing there. My group of friends and I probably didn’t talk for like 10 minutes as we walked around.

After looking around a little bit we walked towards the School Book Depository building to get a better look. The Depository is no longer operating. It was bought by the state and is now run as The Sixth Floor Museum. Tours are offered. So we bought a ticket.

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Walking in the footsteps of Billy the Kid and other roadtrips I want to take

Posted in Americana, Billy the Kid, pop culture, roadtrip with tags Billy the Kid, gunfighters, Kool Aid, LEB, Nerdy Roadtrip, pop culture, roadtrip, Wizard of Oz on August 3, 2012 by Paxton

Brian has given us a good assignment this week. He wants us to plan the ultimate pop culture roadtrip. I have already gone on several geeky roadtrips in my life thanks to having been a traveling IT consultant for about 8 years. I’ll start chronicling more of those soon. I already talked about two Star Wars Roadtrips that I’ve taken (Star Wars Celebrations I and II). But I think Brian’s idea is to plan a road trip that you want to take.

There are several I could do, but one is definitely at the top. And I’ve discussed it before, both on the Nerd Lunch Podcast and here on the site. I want to walk the Billy the Kid Trail in New Mexico.

I’ve been a huge fan of Billy the Kid since high school. I’ve read a ton of books about him (and other gunslingers). Plus, my wife is from New Mexico, so it’s totally doable. There are several places in New Mexico pertaining to the famous outlaw. The biggest would probably be the Lincoln State Monument in Lincoln, NM.

(Via Jeff Arnold’s West)

The little town of Lincoln has been preserved almost exactly as it was back in Billy’s day. You can still visit the courthouse in which he was imprisoned and then famously shot his way out of, killing two deputies in the process. There’s also the Wortley Hotel which was once owned by Pat Garrett, the man who shot Billy. The hotel was also the final dining place of Bob Ollinger, who was one of the deputies Billy killed in his getaway. Not only would this place be awesome for Billy the Kid buffs, but the town is almost exactly how it was in the Old West. It would be great to see how things were back then as I’m fascinated with the time period.

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Nerd Lunch Episode 42: Scheduling the ultimate nerd weekend

Posted in podcast, roadtrip with tags movies, Nerd Lunch Podcast, podcast, podcasts, roadtrip, video games on June 19, 2012 by Paxton

Welcome to Episode 42 of the Nerd Lunch podcast. This week the three of us ride with an empty fourth chair.

Gameworks

The topic this week is “Nerd Weekend”. The three of us have a discussion about what we would do if the three of us met up for the weekend. We talk about places to go, games to play, movies to watch and of course, copious amounts of hossin’ to hoss. Want to know what a Nerd Lunch Weekend would entail? Then you’ve come to the right place.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner. And yes, we are still on the Zune Marketplace.

Or, you can listen to the episode right here:

http://player.wizzard.tv/player/o/i/x/134006790026/config/k-28fb6c171299270f/uuid/null/episode/k-7bf3f0de1d843a2a